1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to implantable medical devices, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for trapping and/or conditioning electromagnetic phenomenon resulting from electromagnetic fields experienced by a medical device lead.
2. Description of the Related Art
The technology explosion in the implantable medical devices industry has resulted in many new and innovative devices and methods for analyzing and improving the health of a patient. The class of implantable medical devices now includes pacemakers, cardioverters, defibrillators, neural stimulators, and drug administering devices, among others. Today's state-of-the-art implantable medical devices are vastly more sophisticated and complex than early ones, capable of performing significantly more complex tasks. The therapeutic benefits of such devices have been well proven.
There are many implementations of implantable medical devices that provide data acquisition of important physiological data from a human body. Many implantable medical devices are used for cardiac monitoring and therapy. Often these devices comprise sensors that are placed in blood vessels and/or chambers of the heart. Often these devices are operatively coupled with implantable monitors and therapy delivery devices. For example, such cardiac systems include implantable heart monitors and therapy delivery devices, such as pace makers, cardioverter, defibrillators, heart pumps, cardiomyostimulators, ischemia treatment devices, drug delivery devices, and other heart therapy devices. Most of these cardiac systems include electrodes for sensing and gain amplifiers for recording and/or driving sense event signals from the inter-cardiac or remote electrogram (EGM).
Generally, a number of physiological data such as ventricular pressure, oxygen supply in the patient's blood, EGM data, a patient's breathing patterns, and the like, are collected and stored by data acquisition devices implanted into a human body. The data can then be used to analyze the condition of a patient's physical state. Many times, information gathered by the implantable medical device may provide indications of certain conditions in a patient's body. Such conditions may affect the manner in which medical therapy (e.g., cardiac therapy) is delivered by the implantable medical device. If a particular condition is not detected properly, or a condition is misdiagnosed, incorrect reactions by the implantable medical device may occur. Incorrect reactions by the implantable medical device may cause harm to a patient. Generally, physiological data may be collected by a lead that delivers a signal relating to the physiological data to implantable medical device. In the presence of an electromagnetic field, the signal on the lead may become corrupted, causing errors.
Many times, delivery of therapy may be performed in response to certain physiological data and/or data indicating other physical occurrences (e.g., unusual breathing patterns) detected in a patient. For example, certain activities performed by a patient may lead to increased physiological indications in the patient's body. Often, an implantable medical device may be programmed to detect such physiological changes and react to them accordingly. For example, an implantable medical device may deliver one or more cardiac therapy in response to a particular condition detected in the patient's body. The implantable medical device may also modify the normal mode of therapy delivery in a patient's body in response to an unusual condition detected. Therefore, improved accuracy in the signal delivered by the lead is desirable for proper operation of the implantable medical device.
When an implantable medical device has been inserted into a patient's body, it enters an area where the patient is exposed to a substantial amount of radio frequency (RF) signals. The length of the lead generally acts as an antenna during exposure to radio frequency signals, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) processes and RF signals from radio diathermy processes. Due to the antenna-like behavior of the lead, the tip of the lead may behave as a source for the coupled (e.g., induced) current flow created by the RF signal. Furthermore, other portions of the lead, such as part that is placed inside a connector associated with the implantable medical device, may experience coupled (e.g., induced) current flow created by the RF signal.
In the presence of MRI signals, (e.g., during MRI scanning processes), an appreciable amount of current may be generated in the lead such that the tip of the lead contains a sizable magnitude of current gradient. Due to the conservation of energy principles, much of the current is converted to heat due to the energy loss caused by the resistance of the lead tip. Therefore, a significant amount of heat may be generated at the tip of the lead, which may cause serious bodily injury to a patient. Burns to the tissue exposed to the tip of the lead may occur. Furthermore, a large amount of coupled current in the lead may cause the implantable medical device to malfunction, thereby creating a risk of injury or death to the patient.
Changes to the signals traveling though the lead (e.g., sensor signals from the lead to the implantable medical device and/or therapy signals sent by the device) may cause the malfunctions in the operation of the implantable medical device. In such an instance, erroneous delivery of therapy may occur which may lead to heart arrhythmia or other physiological damage to a patient.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.